Since 2020 members of the Ruedi Wealth team have been writing weekly investing and retirement planning columns for our local newspaper, The News-Gazette.
As retirement planners, we have to recognize the uncertainty of returns and make sure our clients’ financial goals are not derailed by something like a perfectly normal bear market. For this reason, we have to “stress test” any financial plan we build against a wide range of possible outcomes.
If you want to chip away at a monumental savings goal like funding a retirement, you can’t simply hope to save here and there when it is convenient. It won’t be done in a single year or lump sum. You will need to plan for years or decades of consistent saving before you notice any material progress towards such a big goal.
What happens if you do everything right to prepare for retirement, only to get unlucky with below-average stock returns during retirement?
Fortunately, despite all the moving parts, the options couples have for claiming Social Security are actually less complicated than most would think.
Though retirees with a reasonable spending plan can weather a bear market or even multiple bear markets during retirement, if that bear market shows up at the wrong time it can spell trouble.